Ocean quilt {Finished}

Thank you for all the congratulations!

Way back, what seems like a million years ago, I got a custom quilt inquery.  There was a pair of little boys, who share a room, and needed coordinating ocean quilts.

I had a ton of fun picking out wonderful ocean-colored fabrics.  (Maybe a bit too much fun, adding in some of that 'while the cart if open fabric', and I had 55(!!!) yards of fabric arrive at my house from 6 online shops.)



Whirlygiggles in two sizes, with a special paper-pieced dolphin block for Luke's quilt.

And no photo of the other one at all - boo!!  But both finished at about the same size - 81" x 88"



Look at how well I used a bunch of the extra yardage on the pieced back.

I did both quilt backs like this.



The paper pieced dolphins were a labor of love.  From the start, as I hunted high and low for the perfect pattern.  To the final debate over how to quilt them.

I didn't want to include them in my overall stipple.  So I outlined the frame (which is my favorite Kona blue, Glacier), then did a seaweed kind of wavy thing in the water, and sketchy echo quilting in the dolphins.



Now, this was super cool.  Luke's mom wanted to include some of his artwork in the quilt.  I didn't want it to fade over time, and also know how hard it can be to draw on fabric.

I had her send me a picture on a regular piece of paper, and made sure that he signed it.  Originally, I intended to hand embroider a representation of his art.  But then I started working at the Bernina store, and met some girls that are really into machine embroidery.  With the 830 and fancy digitizing software, they are able to take any jpg and turn it into a fabric sketch.  Marcy made this awesome quilt label - it's about 5x7" - and is almost an exact replica of Luke's drawing.  I didn't want to quilt over it, so I hand stitched it to the back after everything was done.



One final picture, with the Kona glacier binding and a touch of mustard added in.  It picked up the couple bits of mustard in prints throughout the quilt.

They were sent off to be loved (priority, insured UPS, with signature confirmation - I didn't want to chance them getting lost!).

2012 Catch-up

I'm still here!  Making all kinds of stuff, but way too tired to actually edit and post photos of any of it.  Much to my woe, I don't have pictures of two of my finished quilts (!?!)

But here's a photo-heavy super fast summary of the last three months.

I was freezing in late October, so I made myself a SUPER soft scarf - AMH voile and flannel.  I also picked up a little knitting again, as I'm teaching a home school girl how to knit.  I used Lorana's laces worsted and made some fingerless mitts.

And you may not be able to tell from the photo, but I sure can - the reason I was totally lazy - I'm also busy making a baby!  Little one due June 22nd.  (Every one of my bathroom self-photos look a little psycho.  Not one of my skills!)



In October I finished up Bernina technical training.  I took an 830 apart into a million pieces.



And then actually got it back together and working properly!  Also did a couple other machines and a serger.  I've been having fun at the shop, cleaning and repairing both very old and current Berninas.



This is the year of the quilt for my close group of friends.  Our boys were tiger scouts in 1st grade, and we bonded over the cub scout years of crazy.  With those same boys HS sophomores at this point, the 5 of us get together for birthday breakfasts, at the least, throughout the year.  I always do something hand made, and was running out of ideas.  So I went the easy route and decided I would do a special lap quilt for each of them this year.

The first birthday is Larua's, in August.  She is a pink person, and I had a blast pulling all my pinks for a sparkle punch.  I gifted the quilt top and then took it back to finish :)  It turned out awesome, and I for some reason have only this one picture!



Maureen was next, with her December birthday.  I love this bow tie pattern and went with it in huge blocks to show off my favorite blues and greens.  She's a gnome lover, like me.  She's totally Heather Ross Gnome-worthy, and I used a big hunk of it.



All the bow tie corner extras were stitched at the same time into HSTs, and I did a random block of them on the back.  With one more little gnome in a special spot by my birthday wish for her.



Finished up my bee blocks - horribly late and some without even taking photos.

Lee's solids were wonderful.



And I loved doing my own hexagon improv, using the pink dandelion fabric as inspiration.



Finally got to see my quilt in print, after completing and sending it off a year ago November.



I'm one of the contributors in this new book, with my large lap quilt called Starflower.  I was having fun looking at the idea of negative space that we all talk about, and actually reversing it - swapping the prints/solid neutral, within modern quilt designs.  This is the one they accepted for the book.



I've made this pattern by Amy Smart three times now, and I love it every time!  This was a baby shower gift, and I actually have several more photos.  So I'll talk about it more in another post.



Same for the custom ocean quilts I did.  I so love how they turned out, but I don't have a single picture of the second one!  WTF?



Let's call it a wrap on 2012!

FMQ on my Janome Horizon 7700

I did a happy dance last night, completing quilting on my largest quilt to date - so I must share with you :)

I also think that I will most surely remember whatever important thing I have figured out, but learned that it's way easier to just note the details down so I don't have to experiment again the next month.



Last night I started and finished free motion stipple on a large full, 3 hours total! - it's about 82" x 92" (that's the back of the quilt - can't show you the front)

The largest I had done in the past was about 75x75 and that had seemed super, super hard on my old Brother. I actually got my ruler out and measured that there are exactly 11 flat inches to the right of the needle on the 7700. The point at which I was quilting in the exact middle of this one, the only trick was keeping the weight from catching on the outside lip of the extension table.

Hurray that I didn't have to WILL the time/space continuum to compress my quilt as I squashed it into the machine!



Knowing that I would need to wrestle the weight of this quilt a bit, I dragged a Lifetime table up from the basement. It's a perfect size for the space I normally have open.



At 4 feet long, I just pushed it all the way against the window and up to the lip of my dining room table.

And as much as I love sitting at the dining room table, I'm going to look into getting the Gidget 2. I'll probably rearrange the room a little bit so I have just my ironing and cutting on the table and then set my machine down into the Gidget. It got pretty annoying every time the quilt bound up by getting caught on one of the Horizon's extension table edges.



These are my machine settings for Free Motion Quilting. Leah Day's information was a fabulous place to start! I tried the D3S stitch, which makes a nice knot at the start and end for you, but found that whatever the machine does to make that knot, while nice and strong, was a little tricky to bury.

Stitch length = 0. You can't see it here, but I changed my thread tension off of the Auto setting (which is about a 4, I found out) and set it at about 5. I always do a quick practice sandwich and that tension is where I got the most wonderful stitch on both the top and bottom. My feed dogs are still UP, and I didn't change the presser foot pressure, as both of those things are compensated for ......



...... by the Supreme Slider - which I honestly didn't expect to be SO HUGE a difference. Seriously. If you haven't tried one yet, get one! Besides that super awesome, slippery surface, it covers those feed dogs.

The choice of stitch D1S automatically gives me the single hole plate. I found the single hole made a big difference during FMQ. With the regular slot, the thread would sometimes catch or break down inside the machine.

The green bit on my needle is the nice color that Schmetz gives to their Stipple Quilting needles. I make sure to use a new one for every quilt.

If you haven't seen the quilting foot on a Horizon yet, that huge thing is it! The little open-toe on the bottom can be swapped out for 2 other choices, but I like the open toe best. And that big double spring contraption on the right is actually super awesome. You can twist the rightmost one to raise or lower the hover height of the foot, so that it perfectly skims your quilt top. No need to change the machine's foot pressure.



Finally, the thread - I usually quilted with Gutermann and was super happy with it. But based on Leah Day's rave of Isocord when free motion quilting, I thought I would give it a try. Plus, the store I work at has what seems like a million rainbow rack of colors! Not knowing much about it, I found out that it is used for embroidery - hence the million colors.

I picked eggshell white #101 - it was a perfect match for the Kona snow. One spool has 1000m, and I started with a new spool for this quilt. I didn't use all the bobbins I wound, but you can see about how much thread I used. I did a medium to large stipple, which seemed to fit the scale of the large improv design of the quilt.



I wound 6 bobbins and only used about 4 1/2! The Janome bobbin is a little bigger - taller - than my old Brother. Plus, the Isocord is fairly fine - so those bobbins went a long way. My quilt retreat friends will remember my neurotic need to know when my bobbin was low, as I always start and stop on an outside edge. But since giving the whole tail-burying thing a try, I've been liberated. Hurray!

Oh, I used 505 to spray baste this huge quilt. So glad I have the large size spray cans. Anyway, happy to report this large-full quilt is completely pucker-free. It's wonderful to be free of unpinning all that basting as you truck along on the quilting.

Between the beautiful stitches, bobbins holding a ton, not worrying about when they would end, and easily pushing all that fabric through my machine, it was a total zen quilt night!

Ocean Whirligiggles - Top done!

I'm moving along on the pair of ocean-theme full quilts I'm working on. And I finished up the top of my dolphin whirlygiggles.



It feels huge! About 84"x92" right now.

I had to push the legos aside and layer the blocks a bit when I planed the layout in my family room.



But the big blocks are so awesome for showing off the graphic prints. And even in the small sets of four I randomly placed around, there's plenty of fabric room.

This Heather Ross print is so perfect for the dolphin-loving little boy!



I placed the paper pieced dolphin block so that it will not be covered by pillows at the top of his bed, nor hanging over the edge.

Smack top and center for him to enjoy! Plus his most favorite print is right below it. I waited for the organic Storyboek 2 line to ship for these wonderful bubbles, turtles, and octopi.



Another print in that Storyboek 2 line has a larger scale underwater kelp forest that is super cool.

All the fabrics in this quilt were so fun to work with. Glad I'm using them all again in a coordinating improv-pieced quilt for their other little boy.

All the boys are in school now! The two older ones started on the 15th, and Becket's first day of 1st grade was Tuesday.

Hurray ;)

I've been super busy - Instagram Update

Things have been nuts, with the summer wrapping up.

I only need to survive 24 more hours, only 24 more hours....the older two start school on Wednesday.




I've been waiting on this pretty little Organic bundle.

Ok, I only needed the bottom two Storyboek II prints...but I couldn't pass adding in the adorable Scamper.



I got a few blue and then green hexagons joined during the Olympics.



So Fast!

In my wait for the organic prints for my custom order, I started and finished piecing a Sparkling Cider 64x64 quilt top.



Our blackberry bush is WAY overflowing. Becket and I picked over 10 cups of berries Saturday night!!!

I made freezer jam, a cobbler, and froze the last couple cups for smoothies.



A non-instagram photo...I got the borders added to this quilt my sister in-law asked me to make.

I am super happy with how flat and square it all seems.



And finally, a fun new adventure for me. My first paying job since I left Motorola when Kenton was born in 1998.   (Not counting commission quilts I guess....I actually had to fill out a form for Homeland Security and an application.  Boy has it been a long time!)

I'm working at a super cute local quilt shop called Gentler Times Stitching in Naperville (by the Fox Valley mall for any local people). You can read a little about Brenda, the owner, if you click my link.

They have a fun collection of fabrics AND yarn, plus a good selection of other fiber crafty stuff, and they are a Bernina dealer. Right now I'm learning the store - eventually my official position will be an in-house Bernina tech.  I'll get to learn all the machines really well, along with going to an official Bernina tech training class.  Not sure how it all will go, but it's going to be fun!

Dolphin Summer

I have two custom quilts in the works for a pair of little boys.

One of them loves dolphins.



A pattern by Paper Panache with what felt like a billion tiny pieces - but that's why it turns out so awesome.

They're extra tiny because I needed to reduce the size by 15% to get it to fit with the other blocks in the quilt.

I'm going to be sad to see them swim away when the quilt is done.

Fabric Stash

Addition

Well, addition seems a little bit of an understatement. I gained a wonderful rainbow.



Some more low volume blues.



A few more.



Grays for my Ghastlies quilt.



Neutral prints and Essex.



Some random fun stuff!



Especially this fun one - not sure what I'll do with it but I love it!

And finally, 8 yards of Kona snow to go with this awesome Munki Munki print.



I have a custom order for two awesome, ocean blue, full size bed quilts.

This is the stack I've gathered for them so far! See, I needed a lot of fabric :)